was an obvious safety concern, and,
as it turns out, a beautiful opportunity
to engage students in an authentic
design-thinking challenge.

As the project got underway,
Joel explained to fellow elementary
teachers and administrators that the

2nd graders would be using engineering and 4th grade mathematics
to design 3–D structures to contain
the baby goats at the barn. The most
common response: “You have little

2nd graders doing what?” But the
students quickly rose to the challenge, showing the adults that they are
capable of applying sophisticated strategies when the project is interesting
enough to them.

During the prototyping process,students used the results of groupbrainstorming sessions to create 2–D(such as toothpicks and marsh-mallows). This allowed them to trou-bleshoot design flaws before iteratingand constructing their models usingbuilding materials.

To build those models, we decided
to use PVC piping with dry-fit connections because it was age-appropriate
and inexpensive. It also allowed
students to pull apart the piping if
necessary. The students chose orange
construction netting as another
material. The squares on the netting
made for easy nonstandard units
for measuring. Instead of counting
by inches, students could count
the number of squares across the
construction netting, helping to build
their number and measurement sense.

The end products were fences mea-suring several feet high and a lowerstep-over barrier for the main gate,with zip-ties and strings to secure thePVC piping and construction nettingtogether.

“I was amazed how one little
structure on two pieces of paper could
be created into a huge wall for the
goats,” commented Jay, a 2nd grade
student. Through this experience, Jay
quickly realized that design thinking
doesn’t take place in your head. It
gains purchase out in the real world
where it’s visible. It’s design doing.

GOat Pro

The biggest challenge wasn’t in the
creation of the prototypes (though
most of them were bigger than the students themselves) or the application
of content (some of which was 4th
grade mathematics and even physics).
Rather, the challenge was developing
empathy for the end user: the baby
goats. The students didn’t necessarily
have trouble identifying emotionally
with the hairy escapees, but to really
design a better way to contain the baby
goats, the teachers needed to help the
2nd graders understand what it was
like to be a baby goat.

One of the ways we sought to have
the students develop greater empathy
and gather user feedback was to mount
a GoPro camera (fondly nicknamed
GOat Pro) on the back of a baby goat
to capture its perspective from inside
the pen. The data from the camera was
incorporated into students’ reflection
and feedback loop as they worked
on their models. Interviews with our
animal care coordinator also helped
students identify where to place their
prototypes in the goat pen.

Once the prototypes were installed,
the students also wanted to gather data
on how all the baby goats interacted
with the prototypes over a longer
period of time. To do this, students
set up several time-lapse cameras to

Second grade students created fences to
contain the baby goats, including this one
made of PVC piping, construction netting,
zip-ties, and strings.